Prudential - TV Advertising

The Brief
Compel people to take time out to address their savings gap and plan for the retirement they want. Create a 21-40 second TV commercial and demonstrate how it might also be rolled out online. Both executions should drive consumers to the Prudential’s online retirement planning tool.


Another brief that I hadn't intended to take on - it all seemed a bit dull and open to cliche. What really changed my mind on this one; the several group brain-storming sessions that we undertook. Working as a group of 6 -8 sparked some imaginative ideas, if not while in session together, then some time after. I can't recommend this type of approach enough, we all seemed to develop and spark ideas off each other that I feel sure we would not have had individually. A practice we should have made use of throughout the course.


This idea came to me later, after a session where Timm had raised the idea of saving for your pension being akin to putting a bit aside whether it be food pushed to the side of your plate for later or a dog burying a bone.


Once I had storyboarded the idea I thought that production of the piece would be fairly straight forward but I think that I underestimated the time that is required to get the right shots, to overcome the technical issues involved in adjusting the final shots and just the logistics of getting people and equipment together in the right place. At this stage the project hasn't even gone beyond a basic animatic. What I have learnt is that taking still images in this way helps to identify issues ahead of movie production, what is drawn on the page in an instant is not necessarily readily achievable in real life. Being uncertain of video production and editing techniques as a whole, I find it difficult to anticipate how long it would take me to realise this as a video production. Others, mainly those in the know, say 'not long' but that's easy for them to say. I find it less than comfortable to learn in this 'cart before horse' way. I much prefer to have organised direct tuition of knowledge and skills in advance of applying them in a project rather than learning them in an adhoc way on the fly.


I am of course much indebted to Matthew and Timm for their assistance in this project. I think we all had great fun - well I did anyway. Matthew particulalrly helped out tremedously with the technical side of production, couldn't have done it without him. It felt odd to be directing them so strongly when I was so indebted to them for their help.


I was reasonably pleased with the results. Having shown it to any number of people it seems that the piece is very clear and direct in the message that it conveys. Giving it a little bit of distance I now realise that I should have allowed much more time to realise the project in a more professional way. I think it's a reasonable idea that might hit part of the target market (mainly male) but it could have been made so much better by taking rudimentary steps such as re-reading the brief afterwards prior to submission. Information such as the need for the piece to also work online and for it to drive clients to Prudential's web-based planning tool could have formed a more explicit and humorous part of the presented piece.

Kingswood Website

Rachel phoned to apologise for not sending through all the agreed content. Circumstances dictate that it's unlikely that she will be able to assemble all required information in the near future. The project is therefore on hold until she is able to create time and space to proceed.

Homebase - Packaging

The Brief
Create packaging and point of sale for Homebase’s ‘Grow Your Own’ fruit and vegetable range for novice gardeners.

Proposition
Homebase know how to help you to grow your own fruit and vegetables – they make it easy.

Target Audience
Our primary target audience are gardening novices. They could be male, female or families with kids. They are adults, but without a specific age range.

Tone of Voice
Simplicity and clarity. Growing your own fruit and vegetables made easy. Easy to understand copy and information for the novice gardener. Natural, earthy, organic. Tastier than the supermarket.

I really wanted to tackle a packaging brief, I find it an interesting area of design and feel that it is an aspect that the course has not allowed us to do justice to. Left to my own devices, of all the ideas generated for this brief I would probably have gone with a decorative based style similar in feel to the current Seeds of Change campaign. I like its simple organic handcrafted feel, it seems right on brief.
However, reviewing initial ideas with Adam he persuaded me that the strongest was the notion of dot-to-dot. It is strongly conceptual, has elements of wit in its combination of imagery and has much potential in terms of in-store application - floor graphics and point of sale etc. It also conveys the idea of ease and fool-proof use required by the brief. However, I have found it incredibly difficult to realise. Maybe it's one of those ideas that Alan Fletcher describes as being better in your head than in actuality.

I think the piece has improved as it has progressed from the clumsy cartoon-style beginnings towards a look that draws more heavily on the classic kids dot-to-dot image. The focused fruit or vegetable needs a context to appear in for the piece to work. However, I still have doubts about whether the message is clearly conveyed by this means and overall I do not have a sense of ownership over the project. It does not feel like me and more importantly is not developing as the kind of packaging that I would find especially appealing. Maybe that's not important but at the moment it feels so.
For the time being I am going to set this aside while I concentrate on other more fruitful briefs. On coming back to it I know that I should think more carefully about the following:

• design as a 3-D object rather than flat, face by face, images
• standardise type and layout devices across the range